Month: February 2020

Nan Liu, research assistant professor in physics in Arts & Sciences, received a $493,885 grant from NASA to study presolar grains in primitive meteorites. Under her new project, “Isotopic Characterization of Presolar Supernova Grains: Constraints on Dust Formation and Nucleosynthesis in Type II Supernovae,” Liu will obtain isotopic and structural compositions of presolar grains from ancient supernovae […]

Images from in and around the Washington University campuses.

Iconic, awe-inspiring and, at last, more accessible. Washington University in St. Louis’ non-denominational Graham Chapel is now open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays for silent meditation, reflection and prayer. The initiative is one of many supported by the Rev. Callista Isabelle, the university’s first director for religious, spiritual and ethical life. She also helped organize Interfaith Week, which runs through Friday, Feb. 21.

Grass-roots groups across the country have been organizing and working to fundamentally change the conditions that disenfranchise so many Americans, poor and nonpoor alike. They would do well to use “Invisible Americans” as a launching point.

Samantha A. Morris, assistant professor of developmental biology and of genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a Sloan Research Fellowship in Computational and Evolutionary Molecular Biology. Sloan Research Fellowships support promising early-career scientists.

Alumni & Development Programs at Washington University in St. Louis has changed its name to University Advancement to better reflect the department’s renewed purpose to advance the university’s mission. 

Question: The nation will celebrate the birthday of George Washington, the university’s namesake, on Monday, Feb. 17. But after whom was the university originally named?

A new study offers a road map to understanding the molecular underpinnings of endometrial cancer, which could lead to new therapies. The national research team was co-led by investigators at the School of Medicine.

Alec Becker, a first-year student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died by suicide Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in his hometown of Dallas. He was 18. Becker only attended Washington University for the fall semester, but friends and faculty who had the opportunity to know Becker say he was thoughtful, warm and spirited. 

William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, led one of three new studies that together provide a far more complete picture of the composition and origin of Arrokoth. The new research published in Science points to the resolution of a longstanding scientific controversy about how such primitive planetary building blocks called planetesimals were formed.